GOP Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., bought between $100,000 and $250,000 of inventory in a fund invested in well being sciences corporations in late January, simply days after attending a briefing on the federal authorities's response to the coronavirus.

The Jan. 29 buy of shares within the BlackRock Well being Sciences Belief II fund, detailed in Hoeven's monetary disclosure report filed in February, got here earlier than markets started plunging later that month, as soon as the unfolding public well being disaster started to have an effect on economies world wide.

It got here 5 days after Hoeven was briefed by officers from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the State Division on efforts to include COVID-19, the illness brought on by the novel coronavirus.

The acquisition got here on the identical day because the fund's preliminary public providing. 

The fund, which owns shares in pharmaceutical builders and medical machine producers, has outperformed the broader market barely since Hoeven's...